FLL Tournament User Guide

(1)

FLL Tournament

User Guide

This document explains the features and functionality

available within the www.FLLTournament.com website.

This easy to use guide will make running a successful FLL

Tournament a simple process for all involved.

Website Reference Document

(2)

S e p t e m b e r 1 4 , 2 0 1 6 P a g e 1

Overview

Every FIRST® Lego® League (FLL) tournament I have attended over the past few years has to a certain

extent, had one thing in common; they have a mess of judging forms and table score sheets that need to be consolidated into spreadsheets for the judging deliberations. Then the process was a jumble of sorting spreadsheets, and attempting to give awards to teams who had not received one yet. The process was slow and painful to watch.

FLLTournament.com was created to streamline this process and to make all the information easily available to those who need it in a timely manner. As an extra added bonus, it also helps with the processes of acquiring volunteers, communicating with teams and volunteers, and post tournament feedback.

The system helps the volunteers do what they need to in the most efficient way. In general, the website is used differently by each of the groups of people below. This document will outline the steps that the various user groups need to master in order to do their job at a tournament. For the purposes of this document, the Tournament Coordinator’s job is going to be reviewed as if they are doing the Volunteer Coordination job as well (this may or may not be the case). Secondly, the Head Referee should be an expert Referee, and therefore should learn how to use the system in case they need to step in for a Referee. Tournament Coordinator Public Volunteer Coordinator Head Judge Head Referee Other Volunteers Judges Referees

You can see the main operators of the FLL Tournament website shown above. Obviously each group has different tasks they are responsible for accomplishing. These tasks will be explained in detail in the following sections.

(4)

S e p t e m b e r 1 4 , 2 0 1 6 P a g e 3

Before we explain these tasks, let’s take a high level view of the activities that have to happen and the volunteers who handle them in order to run a successful FLL Tournament. The pre-tournament period typically starts 6 to 8 weeks before the tournament date. During the tournament day the judges and referees will be busy judging and scoring the teams. Towards the end of tournament day the head judge will officiate over the deliberations process and awards will be assigned to the various deserving teams. Post tournament, the tournament coordinator can review and finalize the results. The last step is to send the team feedback out to the teams; this can be accomplished at the click of a button from the website.

Timeline

Activity

Responsibility

P

re

-T

o

u

rn

a

m

e

n

t

Register Tournament Tournament Coordinator

Volunteers Signup All Volunteers

Volunteer Assignments Tournament/Volunteer Coordinator

Team Import/Entry Tournament Coordinator

Email Reminders (To Teams/Volunteers) Tournament/Volunteer Coordinator

D

u

ri

n

g

T

o

u

rn

a

m

e

n

t

Judge Teams Judges

Score Table Rounds Referees/Head Referee

Room Ranking Judges

Deliberations & Award Assignment Head Judge

Review Judges Comments Head Judge

P

o

st

T

o

u

rn

a

m

e

n

t

Finalize (Lock) Tournament Tournament Coordinator

Email Feedback to Teams Tournament Coordinator

One other function the system can handle for you that did not fall clearly under any volunteers tasks was to provide a “Scoreboard” for the table round results (see Scoreboard section). The scoreboard can display multiple tournaments at once and even scroll through the team scores for larger tournaments.

(5)

S e p t e m b e r 1 4 , 2 0 1 6 P a g e 4

System Requirements

www.FLLTournament.com is a free service that can be used to run FIRST® LEGO® League

tournaments.

Interactive Mode

The ideal way to use FLLTournament.com is to have all of your Judges, Referees, and Heads with iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, tablets, laptops or desktop computers with access to the internet. Access can be via LAN cables, Wi-Fi or mobile Hotspot. Users just logon to the website and enter the judging forms and score sheets directly as they see the teams. The website can be used from any “modern” browser. It has been tested in Internet Explorer v7+, Firefox v15+, Chrome v22+, and Opera v12+. It is very likely it will work on any browser published in the last 2-3 years.

NOTE - Always make sure you still have printed forms for all judges and referees, because internet access is not always a reliable commodity.

Data Entry Mode

An alternative to everyone having access is to have some volunteers assigned as data entry people and have the judges and referees fill in paper forms. The forms then get delivered to the data entry folks who key the data into the FLL Tournament software. These users still need internet access, but it makes the issue much simpler if you only need to setup internet access in one place.

(6)

S e p t e m b e r 1 4 , 2 0 1 6 P a g e 5

Tournament Coordinator

Register Tournament

The first step to using the system is to register your tournament. Simply fill in the form to begin the process. Fields marked with a red asterisk are

required and must be filled in. Most of the fields are self-explanatory, but there is some on-screen help provided to the right of each field.

Multi-part tournaments should each be registered separately with a unique name. You may (and should) use the same Contact Name and Email for both parts. For example: Batavia Illinois typically runs a double tournament (two tournaments of 16 teams each) they differentiate them by naming them the “Batavia Red Tournament” and “Batavia Gold Tournament” (school colors).

You must select an FLL Partner or affiliate that sponsors your tournament, if you do not see yours on the list please use the feedback form to request that they be added to the system. Make sure to include the Partner Organization name, a Contact Name, and an Email Address.

Generally within one business day of registering your tournament, you should receive an email with your Credentials and Password. The first thing you want to do at that point is double check that you can logon to the website and update your Tournament information.

Select the Logon menu item from the website. Fill in your email address and password and click the Logon

Now button.

If you’d prefer you can use the Change Password section to logon and change your password at the same time.

Just in case you have forgotten your password, you can use the Reset Password section to have a new password sent to your email address.

(7)

S e p t e m b e r 1 4 , 2 0 1 6 P a g e 6

After you log on you will see the Tournaments List page. It shows all the tournaments you have access to. The symbol on the menu and on the links on the page indicates administration functions available to you. You can always return to this page by using the Tournaments link on the main menu.

From here the first thing you should do is to finish updating your tournament information. The registration form only contains a bare minimum of the information you can provide about your tournament. Click the

Tournament Edit link.

NOTE – Most hyperlinks within the website are cherry red and will display an underline when you float over them.

On the Tournament Information page you can select the number of table rounds you will be running, the number of teams advancing from your event, and provide a description (a good spot for the event schedule times).

(8)

S e p t e m b e r 1 4 , 2 0 1 6 P a g e 7

In addition, there are three locations to provide URLs. The first one is labeled More Info, if you fill in a URL address a link will be provided to the public so that they can gain “more info” about your tournament.

The second URL is for Directions. Most mapping websites like Google Maps or

MapQuest will be happy to provide you with the URL to link to for your Venue location. This link makes it easy for the public to find your

tournament(s).

The last URL is for a custom volunteer signup page. www.FLLTournament.com has a built in volunteer signup process, so most tournaments will not need this, but some tournaments already had their own volunteer signup process, this URL is to accommodate their wishes.

By default, Volunteer Signup is turned off. If you want to start/stop getting volunteers, you must check/uncheck the Volunteer Signup checkbox (even with a custom volunteer signup page).

And the last item of interest is the Lock Tournament Results checkbox; this checkbox will need to be updated after all of your tournament judging and scoring is completed before you send out your team feedback forms. (If you don’t, you’ll get a lot of calls saying that the coaches cannot see their feedback until the tournament is locked.)

Volunteer Assignments

Ok, so you have updated your tournament information and turned on volunteer signup. Below is a sample of what will be listed on the Upcoming Events page for your tournament. Next step is generally to send out an email to your contacts or prior year’s volunteers to ask them to volunteer for this year’s tournament.

Include the URL for http://www.FLLTournament.com/EventList.aspx and tell them to use the Volunteer

(9)

S e p t e m b e r 1 4 , 2 0 1 6 P a g e 8

The volunteers will fill in a simple form and you will receive an email that they have volunteered.

What you do with them is now up to you.

From the Tournaments page, use the

Volunteers List link to access the volunteers. New volunteers will be listed with an “(unassigned)” job name and no authority options as seen below.

You may also add volunteers manually from this page by clicking the Add Volunteer link.

Click on the volunteer’s name to edit their record…

Type in a Job/Role name for them and assign a room number for each set of judges. (More on room numbers later.) As a general rule, only assign volunteers the authority they need to do their job. This makes the website easier for them to navigate since their choices are limited according to their responsibilities. It also keeps them from accidentally altering something they shouldn’t.

NOTE – Many volunteers should have no authority (ex: table resetters, consessions folks, hallway monitors, etc.). See the next page for suggested guidelines.

(10)

S e p t e m b e r 1 4 , 2 0 1 6 P a g e 9

Use the following table as a guideline when assigning authority: Authority Volunteer Jobs/Roles

Tournament Tournament Coordinator Volunteers/Authority Tournament Coordinator

Volunteer Coordinator Teams List Tournament Coordinator Deliberations/Awards Tournament Coordinator

Head Judge Core Values Judging Head Judge

Core Values Judges (Data Entry Folks) Project Judging Head Judge

Project Judges (Data Entry Folks) Robot Design Judging Head Judge

Robot Design Judges (Data Entry Folks) Table Scoring Head Referee

Referees

(Data Entry Folks) None (All other volunteers)

When you have completed your changes, click the Save button to update the record. Or you may use the

Send Info button to update the record and send an email to the volunteer. Below is a sample of the

email that is sent from this page…

It is a good practice to assign volunteers ASAP, that way they know you got the message and have an important role for them to play.

(11)

S e p t e m b e r 1 4 , 2 0 1 6 P a g e 10

Team Import/Entry

Next on the list of things to do is to enter or import the list of teams that will be attending your event. Go to the Tournaments page, and then click on the Teams List link for your tournament.

On the Teams List page, you basically have two choices for how to get the teams loaded into the system. We’ll start by entering one team manually. Click on the Add a Team link to go to the Team Edit page.

Enter the Team #, Team Name and other information if you have it. Click the Save button and repeat the process for additional teams. If you are lucky enough to be sent an excel spread sheet of the teams that will be attending your tournament, you can import by clicking on the Import Teams link above. The Team Import page has detailed instructions on the format of the spread sheet and the process to upload the teams.

It is important to make sure you get the coach’s name and email address so that you can send them their team

feedback after the tournament.

NOTE - The team list can also be exported by clicking on the

(12)

S e p t e m b e r 1 4 , 2 0 1 6 P a g e 11

Email Reminders

One of the most awesome features in the FLL Tournament website is the ability to send out email blasts to the teams or volunteers. Before the tournament you can use this to send out special emails like “calls for more volunteers”, “pre-register for pizzas”, or “tournament reminders”. This ability is restricted to volunteers with “Tournament” authority.

Team Reminders

Go to the Tournaments page, and then click on the Team Email Blast link for your tournament. On the Team Email Blast page you can compose a custom email to a single team or send the email to all the teams at your tournament.

If you want to use one of the pre-defined email templates you can simply select one from the template drop down. Let’s select the

Team Reminder as our example template…

Selecting a template populates the Subject and Body with useful text. One of the nice features of the system is that it can customize the emails using special [Keywords]. You can see the acceptable keywords on the blue buttons on the right of the screen.

Clicking on the keyword buttons will insert that keyword at the current cursor location (in most browsers). If by chance they do not work in your browser, you can simply type them in and they should work fine. They are case sensitive and should contain no spaces within the brackets.

Some templates may have text that needs to be updated before you send the email out. In this template we can see items like ”HH:MM AM – Doors Open”; you’ll need to replace the times with the appropriate times before you send out the email.

Once you have the email perfected, you can click on the Preview button. It will display a sample of what the email will look like. If everything looks correct you can then click the Send button to send out the email(s).

NOTE - It is a good idea to send out a Tournament Reminder for Teams about a week before your tournament.

(13)

S e p t e m b e r 1 4 , 2 0 1 6 P a g e 12

Volunteer Reminder

Go to the Tournaments page and then click on the Volunteer Email Blast link for your tournament. This page works similar to the team email page in that you can compose a custom email to a single volunteer or send the email to all the volunteers at your tournament. You may also select volunteers by Job/Role, so if you want to remind the “Referee” volunteers about referee training, you can. There are also a couple templates that can be used with volunteers. Below is the

Tournament Reminder for volunteers…

The tournament keywords are the same as on the team email page, but there are new Volunteer Keywords that can be used in volunteer emails.

You can even send a volunteer their logon credentials ([VolEmail] & [VolPswd]). [VolPswd] is a special keyword since it will not show you someone’s password in preview mode; it will be replaced when the email is sent.

Some templates may have text that needs to be updated before you send the email out. In this template we can see items like ”HH:MM AM – Doors Open”; you’ll need to replace the times with the appropriate times before you send out the email.

Once you have the email perfected, you can click on the Preview button. It will display a sample of what the email will look like. If everything looks correct you can then click the Send button to send out the email(s).

NOTE - It is a good idea to send out a Tournament Reminder for Volunteers about a week before your tournament.

On the day of the tournament, the FLL Tournament Coordinator should just be able to sit back and relax.

(14)

S e p t e m b e r 1 4 , 2 0 1 6 P a g e 13

Finalize Tournament

After the tournament has concluded a few items should be taken care of. The first item is to have the Head Judge or someone review all the judging forms. Typos and grammar can be cleaned up and Head Judge can review to ensure all comments are appropriate and meet with FIRST judging standards. Once that is completed, the Tournament Coordinator can return to the Tournament Edit page and check the checkbox. This will prevent any more changes from being made to the judging sheets, table score sheets, and awards assignments. It will also make the Awards List available for the public to view on the Tournament Results pages and the (Category) Feedback pages.

Email Feedback to Teams

The last item in the process is to send out the team feedback email to the teams. Follow these steps to send out the feedback emails:

1. Logon and go to the Tournamentspage 2. Click on the Tournament Edit link

3. Make sure the Lock Tournament Results checkbox is checked 4. Return to the Tournaments page

5. Click on the Team Email Blast link

6. Select the Team Feedback template from the drop down list 7. Edit the email text as needed

8. Click the Preview button to view a sample 9. If all looks good, click the Send button

The emails that are sent contain links to the team’s individual (Category) Feedback and Table Score

Sheet pages. These emails can be forwarded by the coach to the team members if they wish or simply

printed and discussed with the team. NOTE – You can preview the Team

(Category) Feedback pages and Table Score Sheet pages from the bottom of the Team Edit page. You can also print them

from there in case some team does not have an email address and you need to use “snail mail”.

(15)

S e p t e m b e r 1 4 , 2 0 1 6 P a g e 14

All Volunteers

Volunteers are the lifeblood of any good FLL Tournament. Making it easy to signup, communicate with, and retain a volunteer base is one of the goals of the system.

Volunteer Signup/Entry

To sign up to volunteer at one of the tournaments, a potential volunteer simply needs to: 1. Visit www.FLLTournament.com

2. Go to the Upcoming Events page 3. Click on the Volunteer link next to the

desired tournament

4. Fill in the Volunteer Signup form 5. Click the Submit button

An email with be sent to the contact for the tournament and you should hear back from them within a few days.

People can volunteer at more than one tournament if they wish. The system is smart enough to only create one user account (and password) per email address.

(16)

S e p t e m b e r 1 4 , 2 0 1 6 P a g e 15

Head Judge

The Head Judge plays a very important role. Before the tournament, they should make sure all the Judges are able to get connected and know how to use the application. They also need to decide on (and communicate to the judges) the “Ranking” scheme and level to be done at the tournament (see the

Room Ranking section for more details).

During the tournament they will be facilitating the deliberations process and assigning awards to teams. After the award ceremony, they should review all the judging forms. Typos and grammar should be cleaned up before the Team Feedback emails are sent out by the Tournament Coordinator.

Deliberations

Logon and go to the Tournaments page and then click on the Deliberations link for your tournament (after all the judges have seen all of the teams and judging is complete). You will see something like the following page:

The Deliberations page is a very powerful tool to aid judges in the process of handing out awards. Since it is rather complicated, we are going to look at the various sections/functions separately.

The columns filters can be used to target what you are viewing. If the tournament is giving out the small set of awards (7 awards), I would suggest only checking Core Values, Overall, Scores, and Ranks. The screen will automatically refresh when you change column filters. You can also click on any red column name to sort it in ascending order. Clicking a second time will sort it in descending order.

NOTE - “Round” and “Percents” are only applicable to Table results. “Section” is only applicable to Judged results. “Consideration” is not working at this time.

During deliberations it is often useful to be able to mark rows as good or bad candidates for an award. The Highlight Rows section does just that. To use highlighting, simply select a highlighter color and click on any row of the table. Use the eraser to remove highlighter colors. In general, it is a good idea to adjust your filters and sorts before you use the highlighting, since highlighting is a temporary setting.

(17)

S e p t e m b e r 1 4 , 2 0 1 6 P a g e 16

The Award Assignment section can be used to select which team will be receiving an award. Select the award you wish to assign, select the Team that will get the award, and fill in the comments that will be read when presenting the award. If the judges change their minds, it is not a problem, just assign the same award to a new team. There are a few visual clues that appear on

the deliberations table. The first column will display a trophy icon for any team that you have assigned an award to. By floating the mouse over the icon, it will display the award name(s).

The second column will display a rookie team icon for rookie teams. This makes giving out the rookie team awards very simple.

The last icon is attached to whatever column the table is currently sorted on. The column will display the icon if it is currently sorted ascending and the icon for descending.

Continue deliberating and assigning awards until you have made all the assignments.

Award Assignment

After all the awards are assigned, you can print out the Award List page to use as a script for the closing ceremonies.

Awards can also be assigned or changed on this page by clicking on the edit icon, changing the team or comments and then clicking on the save icon. You can use the cancel icon to abort any changes.

NOTE - The awards that are available are controlled by a setting on the Tournament Edit page. If you are not seeing the correct awards, you will need to have the Tournament Coordinator change that setting. Warning, doing that will erase any awards that have been assigned.

Review Judge Comments

After the tournament has concluded the Head Judge should go to the Core Values, Project and Robot

Design pages and double check that all the scores are green. This indicates that every question is

scored and that all the comments have text in them. They can then click on each score to review the comments the judges have made. Typos, grammar and inappropriate comments should be corrected. Once you are done with this process, inform the Tournament Coordinator that the tournament can now be finalized.

(18)

S e p t e m b e r 1 4 , 2 0 1 6 P a g e 17

Judges

After volunteering to work as a tournament judge, you should receive an email from the tournament coordinator with your logon credentials and job/role assignment. Paper forms should be available (as backup) for all judging, just in case internet access issues occur.

Judge Teams (Core Values, Project, & Robot Design)

Logon to the website, and then click on the Core Values Judging, Project Judging, or Robot Design Judging link, depending on what type of judge you are. You will see a list of teams for your tournament.

Interview/judge the team as you normally would. After the team leaves the room, click on the score number link next to that team’s name. This will typically be a red

0.000 for a team that has not been judged yet.

The judging form will appear with the team’s number and name at the top. Click the appropriate radio buttons to score the team. The team’s score will be calculated as you go.

Feel free to fill in the comments as you go or if you are in a rush for time, you may leave them blank until you have a break. Do not leave comments blank until you have seen all the teams as you will not remember specifics. It is much easier to amend the comments later than to create them. When you have answered all the questions, you can click the SAVE button to record those choices.

If you left any questions or comments blank, the score will appear next to the team name in red. If you filled everything in, the score will appear as a green number. You can click on any score to go back and make changes as needed.

After you judge a team, that team should show the appropiate judging room number in the last column of the team list. Teams that have not been judged yet will not show a room number. The room number is a link to the Room Ranking page.

(19)

S e p t e m b e r 1 4 , 2 0 1 6 P a g e 18

Room Ranking

Room Ranking is a process of ranking the teams within each judging group. The head judge should explain to you how this process is going to work at your tournament. They should tell you the level and style they want you to use for ranking.

Ranking Level:

None – Some small tournaments that give out 7 awards and only have one set of judges for each

category (Core Values, Project and Robot Design) may choose not to do ranking.

Category Level - Medium sized tournaments that give out 7 awards and have more than one set

of judges for each category (Core Values, Project and Robot Design) should rank at the Category Level.

Section Level - Large sized tournaments that give out 18 awards and have more than one set of

judges for each category (Core Values, Project and Robot Design) should rank at the Section Level. For example the sections for Core Values are Inspiration, Teamwork and Gracious Professionalism.

Ranking Styles:

Sequential Ranking – Assigns ranking numbers sequentially from 1 to n for each of the teams

you have judged. Team rank #1 is the best team, #2 is the second best, etc. There are no ties when ranking teams, each team must be given a unique rank number (in each ranking column).

Proportional Ranking – Assigns ranking number on a scale of 100 to 0 for each of the teams

you have judged. The best team should be given 100 and the worst team 0 points. The other teams should be distributed according to their relative place between them. If the second place team was far from the top team they may be assigned a number like 85, if third was close to the second team they might get an 83, etc. The gaps in numbers can provide important deliberation information.

Room Ranking may be done as you judge teams (if you have time) or periodically throughout the day. From the (Category) Judging page, click on the Room link for one of the teams you have judged. You

will see a list of the teams you have judged. In the example to the left, the tournament is doing Category Level – Proportional Ranking. The Rank column is used for Category Level ranking. 1,

Rank-2, and Rank-3 columns

are used for Section level ranking.

(20)

S e p t e m b e r 1 4 , 2 0 1 6 P a g e 19

Head Referee/Referees

After volunteering to work as a tournament Head Referee or Referee, you should receive an email from the tournament coordinator with your logon credentials and job/role assignment. The Head Referee does not have any specific task to do within the system, but they should be comfortable with the referee’s tasks so that they can help out if needed. Paper forms should be available (as backup) for table scoring, just in case internet access issues occur.

Score Table Rounds

Logon and go to the Tournaments page, use the Table Scoring

link. You will see a list of teams for your tournament.

During the table runs, referee the table as usual. At the end of the match, click on the score link for that Team/Round. The online score sheet looks just like the paper version.

Review the results with the team drivers and make sure they understand why you are marking the score sheet the way you are. Any disputes or disagreements should be resolved at this time.

The score sheet will calculate the score as you go and any questions you have missed with be highlighted in red. The score at the top of the page will also be red until all the questions have been answered.

Error messages may pop-up if you mark answers that do not make sense (like 7 balls on the rack and the center ball is “your” teams color).

After all the questions have been filled in (the score at the top of the page is green) and the team agrees with the score, you should click the Save button. The score should appear on the tournament

Scoreboard in a matter of minutes.

If the team has a dispute that is getting escalated to the Head Referee, save the completed score sheet and let the Head Referee resolve the question. The Head Referee can pull up the score sheet and make changes if they are warranted.

(21)

S e p t e m b e r 1 4 , 2 0 1 6 P a g e 20

Scoreboard

On the day of the tournament, you can use the built in Scoreboard feature to display a current view of the table scores for your tournament.

Scoreboard access:

1. Go to www.FLLTournament.com

2. Click on the Tournament Results menu item

3. In the Scores column, click the View

link for your tournament.

4. The Scoreboard page will appear 5. Click the options icon to access

the options panel.

Options Panel:

• Tournaments – You may opt to display more than one tournament’s scoreboard, if you wish.

• Click this icon to set the Text Color for a tournament scoreboard.

• Click this icon to set the background color for a tournament scoreboard.

• Columns – Select the columns you wish to see on your Scoreboard.

• Scrolling – Tournaments with more teams than fit on the screen can turn on automatic scrolling. • Font Size – Depending on usage you may want the table(s) displayed with a larger font size. • Misc. - Alternate Row Colors – Turn alternate row (background) colors on or off.

• Misc. - Refresh Periodically – This option will check periodically for new scores and display them. If scrolling is not active, it will refresh every 3 minutes. If scrolling is on, it will refresh each time it completely scrolls through the first tournaments list.

• Misc. - Hide Menu Area – This option hides the main menu area making screen space available for the scoreboards.

NOTE – If you are displaying multiple tournaments, you should always put the tournament with the most teams as the first tournament, this will make ensure all teams gets to see their scores before the lists refresh.

(22)

S e p t e m b e r 1 4 , 2 0 1 6 P a g e 21

Public

The public can access a good deal of information about your tournament (if you have filled it in). The public side of the site is divided into three main areas the Upcoming Events, Challenges, and Tournament Results.

Upcoming Events

The Upcoming Events page has a list of all the upcoming approved

tournaments. If the Tournament Coordinator has filled in links for More Information and Directions, those will show up for the public to utilize. The Volunteer link will appear as long as volunteer signup is turned on.

Challenges

The Challenges page has links to the public versions of the table score sheet for that year. The public versions work the same way as the referee versions, but do not allow the information to be saved. These score sheets are also the best place to get a printed version of the score sheets. Different year sheets print better as portrait or landscape mode.

Tournament Results

Tournament table scores can be viewed the day of the tournament. Tournament Awards can be viewed after the

(23)

S e p t e m b e r 1 4 , 2 0 1 6 P a g e 22

Feedback

Please use the Feedback form on the website to submit your questions, comments and enhancement ideas…